Writer, gardener, TV presenter

Tag Archives: aquilegia

I always feel that June answers questions that the rest of the year poses. Some of these are practical – how will this border look at its very best? How sunny will this corner be at the very peak of the year? Where does the sun rise on the longest day? But most of the answers are to much more philosophical and personal questions, such as: Why do I garden? Or how does such a small patch of this earth give me so very much pleasure?

Colour arrives like a carnival and should be celebrated with high abandon. There are Oriental poppies with huge orange blooms, Bearded Irises topped with some of the richest colours in the whole floral world, large-flowering clematis and, as the month unfurls, roses, glorious roses of every shade of pink, white, red and yellow. The only sane response to this panoply of flowers is to bathe luxuriously in the colour.

I am sure that the secret of June is that it is not the peak of the garden’s year or aspirations. The vegetable garden is still surprisingly empty at the start of the month and although a June border is always lovely, it never has the range of plants or colours that come along later in summer. But because so much is still to come there is not that pang of incipient loss in the way that autumn is glimpsed around the corner of a late summer’s day.

Although trees, hedges and shrubs now have all their full summer foliage, everything still has the freshness and inner glow of spring. Nothing is jaded. Nothing has yet been taken for granted. June is growing and every moment is a celebration. In fact the weather can often be too cold, too wet or, just occasionally, too hot. No matter. This is minor stuff. The British garden – and countryside – is at its very best and I adore every second of it.

Midsummer’s Day, the summer solstice, is a real place in the same way that New Year’s Day or Easter is a meaningful place in the cycle of the year, and should be celebrated with as much energy and enthusiasm as these holidays – which, of course, our pre-Christian, megalith-building ancestors did. From June 24th onwards the days imperceptibly tip towards winter, so June must be savoured to the very last drop.

My idea of horticultural heaven is to be weeding or planting with light enough to work until after 10pm – although weeds have been known to be planted and seedlings weeded in the half-blind rapture of the June twilight! I carry these few precious evenings with me for the rest of the year rather like a pebble in my pocket that I can touch, and they see me through the dark days of winter.

BEES

Swarming bees are a sight that can be alarming at this time of year but in fact they are highly unlikely to attack or bother you at all. The queen will leave her hive looking for a new home, taking with her thousands of male worker bees. They will circle furiously, making a sound like a hundred motorbikes before settling on a branch in a huge living cluster, before heading off for an opening in a hollow trunk or a roof to establish the new colony.

GREENHOUSE /ALLOTMENT

The vegetable garden is coming out of the ‘Hungry Gap’ – that period between the last of the winter crops and the first of summer’s harvest – but there is still time to start a vegetable garden from scratch although there should be some urgency to do so. Tomato plants, courgettes, squashes, runner beans and sweetcorn can all be planted outside now the nights are warming up and aubergines, peppers, melons, cucumbers and more tomatoes grown in a greenhouse. It is important to keep a succession of lettuce going this month, making small sowings every two or three weeks to ensure a steady supply of fresh salad leaves. And of course keep on top of the weeds and water regularly if it is dry.

What to do in the garden this month:

TRIM VERTICALS

It is amazing how forgiving the eye is of the broad expanses of hedge, grass, border or anything really, as long as the edges, in any direction, are suitably straight and clean cut. It is too early to cut hedges because not all young birds have left the nest, but you can cut all entrances and exits and vertical planes in gaps in hedges to crispen them up and whilst this is quick and easy to do and clear up, it can transform the garden. Then, in a month’s time, all the hedges can have a proper trim and your edges, which by then will have become a little fuzzy again, can have their second cut.

SOW BIENNIALS

Biennials, such as Wallflowers, Honesty, Foxgloves, Forget-me-nots and Aquilegias differ from annuals, which grow, flower and set seed all in one growing season, in that they grow fast from seed and develop strong roots and foliage in one season and then flower in the next. For most this means that they germinate and grow without flowering in summer and autumn, remaining dormant over winter, then have another burst of growth before flowering in spring and early summer.

Sow them now in a seed tray, pots or in rows in the vegetable plot and prick them out into pots or thin so that each plant can develop healthy roots and foliage before planting them out where you want them to grow in autumn.

THIN APPLES, PEARS AND DESSERT GRAPES TO ENSURE GOOD SIZED FRUIT

It can be alarming when your precious apple tree suddenly deposits hundreds of small fruits on the ground, but this is perfectly normal and known as the ‘June Drop’. The tree is just reducing the quantity of fruit it carries in order to successfully ripen those that remain. However it is indiscriminate about which fruit it lets go, so it is a good idea to selectively remove the smallest fruit at this time of year before the tree does it for you.

Reduce each cluster on a spur to just two fruits that are not touching each other. Not only will these grow and ripen better as a result, but also the risk of damaging the branches by the weight of the fruit later in the year is greatly reduced.

THE CHELSEA CHOP

‘The Chelsea Chop’ refers to a pruning herbaceous perennials so that they both flower later than they otherwise would and so that their flowering can be staggered if you have a number of plants. It also means that the plants will be more compact and sturdier, needing less staking. It is called the ‘Chelsea Chop’ because the time to do it is just after Chelsea Flower Show has finished.

The trick is to cut back the strongly growing foliage and stems of late flowering herbaceous perennials such as rudbeckia, heleniums and solidago, removing between a third and a half of the growth. This will stimulate fresh side shoots that will carry extra flowers, albeit appearing a little later and a little smaller than they would have done if left to grow freely. You can selectively do this to part of a large clump or to some of your plants and not others so that the flowering season is extended later into autumn.

DEAD HEAD ROSES TO PROLONG FLOWERING

Dead heading roses is really worth doing at least once a week- and preferably daily – in mid summer.

When you dead head, you are effectively pruning and thus stimulating fresh sideshoots which will bear new flower buds and therefore extend the flowering season. Dead heading also stops the plant developing seed and so increases the chance of repeat flowering as seed always takes precedence from the plant’s supplies of nutrients and water.

Just pulling off the old flower heads will help but by far the best approach is to use a pair of secateurs and to cut back to the first leaf below the spent flower. A new shoot will then grow from this point.

Of course some roses, especially the species bushes, have glorious hips in autumn and these will only develop if the flowers are allowed to set seed and fruit. So, enjoy the flowers as long as they last and then wait for the autumnal display that they will produce from their fruit.

PRUNE WISTERIA, CUTTING BACK ALL NEW GROWTH TO SIX INCHES

Wisteria produces its flowers on new growth, which in turn emerges from spurs off the main shoots. Now is the time to prune all this year’s new shoots back to a spur, leaving no more than about 6 inches of growth. In the process the whole plant can be tidied, trained and tied in so that there are no loose, trailing shoots. If there is any doubt about how hard to prune err on the side of cutting too lightly and then in the new year, when the foliage has all died back, you can prune again, reducing each side shoot to just 2 or 3 inches.

PRUNE EARLY FLOWERING SHRUBS

The Spring flowering shrubs such as Philadelphus, Amelanchier, Deutzia, Weigela and Rubus all produce their flowers on shoots grown the previous summer so should be pruned now. This will give the new growth plenty of time to ripen before winter and thus bear maximum flowers next spring. Mature shrubs should be pruned hard, cutting back most of the flowering stems to a healthy new shoot and taking the oldest growth (but no more than a third or quarter of the plant) right back to the base so it is completely renewed every three or four years. A very overgrown shrub should be renewed in this gradual manner too. Young shrubs should have the weakest growth cut back with the remainder pruned just to shape and size. Weed, water and mulch with compost after pruning is done and take semi ripe cuttings from healthy, straight non-flowering pruned stems.